[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DouglasAdams_douglasadams_com.jpg]][[caption-width-right:350:The hoopiest frood of them all (1952-2001)]]

->''"He's just this guy, y'know?"''

''TVTropes.org has this to say about Douglas Noel Adams...''

A British humorist and {{science fiction}} writer, most renowned for having written ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' [[TrilogyCreep "trilogy"]], the ''Literature/DirkGently'' series, and several ''Series/DoctorWho'' stories starring the one and only Creator/TomBaker.

A really hoopy frood, he was very fond of deadlines ([[RidiculousProcrastinator he liked the whooshing sound they made as they flew by]]) and always knew where his towel was. [[note]]Actually, he didn't. That was where the joke came from: he could never, ever find his towel, and figured that it was probably symptomatic of the general disorganization of his whole life. Anyone who actually knew where their towel was, he reasoned, would have to be a really together person.[[/note]] His interests included evolutionary biology, software technology, Apple computers, the music of PinkFloyd, Bach, and Music/TheBeatles, and SCUBA diving. He was involved in a BBC radio production (and then book) with Mark Carwardine called ''Last Chance To See'', where he made his case for the necessity of biodiversity and the need for conservation initiatives. He also considered himself a radical [[{{Atheism}} atheist]], but the "radical" bit was just to show people that he was serious about it (as opposed to merely being agnostic), not because he was intolerant or aggressive. If ever a human being was TooCoolToLive, it was him.

''Hitchhiker'' was constructed in a typically Adams fashion -- he was notorious for cribbing from his own previous works, and a good many aspects of ''Hitchhiker'' had been put to paper in some form (mostly Adams' own plays and unpublished short stories) before the series itself was conceived.

In true Douglas fashion, he advocated using exercise as a way of combating his depression, then died of a massive heart attack at age 47 [[DeathByIrony while at the gym]]. Because of where he was living at the time (Santa Barbara, 2001), Adams actually ''was'' carrying a towel when he died. Many of his fans find this to be [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming very bittersweet]].

Adams has been honored with an asteroid, named in his honor (25924 Douglasadams); the asteroid's prior designation (2001 [=DA42=]) is notable in that it coincidentally carries the year of Adams' passing; his initials; and the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Adams would quite probably see such a coincidence as solid proof that the universe has a sense of humor.

See the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams article]] on TheOtherWiki for more.

Little known fact: Adams invented the wiki before Wikipedia even existed. Website/H2G2, an online encyclopedia system conceived by Adams, was launched in 1999, and predated Wikipedia by two years. Both Wikipedia and [=H2G2=] depended on information contributed by the public, although [=H2G2=] required that ''editors'', staff on Adams' payroll (later, staff on Creator/TheBBC's payroll), approve of certain contributions before it it can be published.

!!Works of Note:* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Credited writer on "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet The Pirate Planet]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]]", generally accepted as main writer of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]", and made heavy contributions to all of Season Seventeen as script editor.* ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''* ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency''* "Literature/ThePrivateLifeOfGenghisKhan" (short story)* ''Script/OurShowForRingoStarr'' (unproduced script)

!!Tropes Associated with his Work:* BrickJoke: Douglas was infamous for these. It could be several ''books'' before he finally dropped the punch line.** With some sense of black humor, you could consider the fact that he wore a towel when he died his last Brick Joke.* CreatorRecovery: Sadly averted. Adams stated that he was going through a [[CreatorBreakdown rough patch]] when writing the fifth ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' book and set out to [[WhatMightHaveBeen write a sixth]] to correct the last one's DownerEnding. Unfortunately, he suffered an AuthorExistenceFailure before it could be completed. A sixth Hitchhiker book was later written by Creator/EoinColfer, to mixed reviews.* LightmareFuel: Making you giggle and cower at the same time (or in stomach-churningly quick succession) is part and parcel of his signature style. Bonus points if you're doing this ''and'' spotting the [[JustForPun pun]] or [[ShoutOut allusion]] at the same time. In short: if your ribs don't hurt, your brain and adrenal glands will.* RidiculousProcrastinator: Adams was notorious for turning in scripts late, and during his time as a novelist would often go off to start other projects to get out of finishing the ones with deadlines coming up. He described himself as a writer who took a certain perverse pleasure in Not Writing. It got to the point where his editor took to locking him in a hotel room with nothing but a typewriter when worse came to worse.-->''I love deadlines. I love the wooshing sound they make as they fly by.''* SelfPlagiarism: Most of his ''Series/DoctorWho'' stuff eventually migrated its way into his novels. ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'' contains elements of ''The Pirate Planet'' and one of his rejected scripts, and ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'' carries over a character from ''Shada'' and an entire plot thread from ''City of Death''.* TemporalParadox: Played with constantly in both the ''Hitchhiker'' and ''Dirk Gently'' series.* UnfazedEveryman: The trope used to be known as the Arthur Dent, and it is still used as a redirect.----